Main Events at Anime NEXT, a recap of the large scale events.

Concerts, panels, human chess, fashion show, what could happen at the Main Events Arena. Well pretty much what I just listed before, this was the space allotted for the main events and draws of this weekend convention. Before I say anything more, the photos I placed on a minor delay is live on Flickr.

So on Friday, I was at Main Events for three events, starting with the Opening Ceremonies. It was late. Possibly due to waiting for guests to arrive. Waiting though, treated the people waiting with a repeating slideshow of Anime Next pictures from last year’s convention. So the full cast of invited guests weren’t there, but this is a chance to see the appearance of already arrived guests. The Japanese guests were all present though, so watching for the appearance of Satoru Nakamura, Mix Speakers, etc. weren’t as much of an issue. There was a good amount of American voice actors though, and the only one I was slightly interested in was Tom Wayland, since his appearance at Anime Boston was quite entertaining. He wasn’t here though, so from the image above, you see that Bill Rogers went and impersonated him.

The next panel that I was at was a Production I.G. panel, that had the appearance of animation director Nakamura Satoru and episode director Kakimoto Kodai. Nakamura Satoru spoke about briefly about Higurashi no Eden, but quickly turned it around for the audience to talk. These are notes from what I took on my iPad.

So there is going to be more Ghost in the Shell from Production I.G. but as with typical Japanese industry, the animators can’t talk.

Nakamura likes the Honey and Clover age feel for Higurashi no Eden.

In Ghost in the Shell what was his favorite scene that he has worked with? In the second Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex series, with Motoko’s past.

Can he in a nutshell, talk about his work as an animator? When animators know of the scenario, the animators starts to work on what can happen, and from the view of the observer, the camera angel pans out.

I happen to enjoy listening to new music, but yes I have to comment that the acoustics were horrible for this venue. I couldn’t hear anything. Either that or I blame it on the fact that I forgot to bring my earplugs with me for the weekend. Press had photo dibs on the first three songs. Since I was already running to another panel, I had to bid adieu to this visual kei band. They also had interesting concert goods, I spent the entire weekend thinking about getting the keitai strap for this band, since it was quite cute. But on the aspect of believing it would leave an eternal Halloween impression, I had to not get it. The images I have of the concert though are live on flickr.

Sixh Fashion Show

Urban fashion is quite popular these days. So on Saturday, this was my first fashion show I made my way to. It was quite entertaining. The fashion goods were quite expensive, though very cute though. I was seriously tempted, since Sixh has a cat theme. So as you can see Vic Mignogna himself was also dolled up to be a model on the runway. More images of the show is at Flickr.

Human Cosplay Chess

Since I missed Cosplay chess at other convention, on Sunday I made myself to Main Events for my last run around. In a cosplay theme of Might vs. Magic, the game was played quite defensively. The game ended to be a draw, but I believe Might’s King got too annoyed, and end up killing the other side.

Check out Anime Diet’s Flickr or even Facebook to see what photos I took for this event.